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 The Bird Lady
Posts: 6440
   
Location: The end of the Earth, SE AR | 1 week ago, my prized 2yo filly came in limping with a scrape on the back center point of her fetlock, right in the middle - the place called the ergot. I cold hosed it clean, put antibiotics on it, wrapped it and put her on Tucaprim. Kept her up Saturday and Sunday because she was limping badly. The scrape appeared to have a very tiny cut in the center barely visible. On Monday I took her to the vet who used a catheter, dye and X-ray, found blood from wound in the sheath of deep digital flexor tendon. Flushed the sheath really well, then flushed with antibiotics and then perfused amaxacin. She's on limited stall rest (15 minutes handwalking per day) 30-45 days stall rest and got 2 doses of Exceed and is on gentamyacin (spelled wrong) til the whole bottle is gone and starts Uniprim as well on Monday.
Things have been going pretty good and when she left the vet she was walking sound. This morning when walked her from her stall to the crossties, I thought I saw a slight limp. I'm worried sick about her to say the least. We have to rewrap her leg this evening.
What were your experiences with a wound that penetracted the sheath of the deep digital flexor tendon but not the tendon itself?
Edited by rollingrfarm 2016-07-29 12:05 PM
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| I had one, the vet had to go surgically and scrape the tendon three different times to get the infection out. She came back sound, but her ankle is slightly bigger due to the scar tissue on one of the ligaments.
Keep the infection out, any swelling above the ankle go back to the vet, as it cannot drain properly as one ligament acts like a girdle and keeps everything up. |
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| I've had two!! EPIC FAILURES by the treating veterinarians at the initial injury. One was in 2012, sliced across the back of the pastern. Multiple vets and thousands of dollars in bills and 10 months stall rest and the horse is BARELY broodmare sound. She requires special shoeing every 4-6 weeks to keep her comfortable. Still has a head bob. Some days are worse than others.
The second one was last fall. Due to my first experience, I hauled to a WORLD RENOWNED vet and spent thousands and the horse is still not sound. They sent her home after 5 weeks of hospitalization and she was lame at a walk. When I pointed out that the injured area was warm to the touch and significantly swollen, they assured me it was only inflammation that would take time to resolve. Five days later she had a MASSIVE abscess blow out of the tendon sheath and was instantly 90% more sound. I'm still dealing with adhesions and scar tissue but I can rider her, at least.
Shooting dye in the injury.....well that seems like an ingenious idea!!! I wish the fancy vets I used would have thought of something like that!! Insert sarcasm here!
I'm a little jaded, having gone through this TWICE without success. However, it sounds like your horse got the appropriate care up front.
And you are doing everything you can to have a successful treatment.
I will tell you to be vigilant in your assessment and care. Don't let the vet tell you something is "normal" if your gut tells you otherwise.
Best of luck on your journey. It's tough!! |
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 Poor Cracker Girl
Posts: 12150
Location: Feeding mosquitos, FL | My old retired guy did that a few years ago. He's sound now unless he really gets to playing hard then he limps a little. He wasn't the soundest to begin with so it's hard to tell if that's from the tendon or from the arthritis.
I think he would be totally sound now if he hadn't been such a terrible aftercare patient. He was fine at the vet's for the week he was there but once home he paced relentlessly in his stall which of course caused his leg to swell and everything to get worse. He was ok tied for awhile but would eventually start up again. I finally had to turn him out with the herd in the small pasture and hope for the best. But, he was already retired at this time and as long as he ended up servicably sound that was fine. Looking back on it, I should have sedated him. Bad man.  |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | When Pippy was 2 she split open the point of her hock, and ruptured the tendon sheath. 3rd place I had her was Oakridge, referral from Jess who was #2, and they did surgery to scrape it, installed a drain, and did a week of IV antibiotics. When I brought her home, I kept it wrapped for 6 weeks, stall rest for 7. Her hock is big but she's sound on it.
I was told that surgery would greatly speed up the healing process and minimize scarring because those kind of infections are hard to treat and tend to flare multiple times. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 411
Location: Smack in the middle of WA! | I dealt with this type of injury with my gelding in 2004. Unfortunately it did not turn out well due to my being way to trusting of my vet. My horse was on stall rest, bandage changed everyday and antibiotics for 3 months before my vet referred him to wsu! I'll be honest I trusted my vet and thought they were doing right by my horse and i was inexperienced to not know the difference. Once at wsu my horse had surgery twice, wore a splint for a week and was then casted. He was put on very strong antibiotics and was able to come home after 6 weeks. He was never sound again. The infection had basically eaten away his tendon. Definitely a huge learning experience for me and I also got a new vet! Keeping the infection away is the key to healing. If you can't control the infection in the sheath then you definitely run into many problems. Ironically the vet that I trusted so much in 2004 was the only vet on call 6 weeks ago when this same horse injured himself so badly I had to put him down. All that said he had been with me ever since then and I was able to ride him some but he was never sound  |
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The Bird Lady
Posts: 6440
Location: The end of the Earth, SE AR | Its been a week, ever so slight swelling walks sound to the cross ties and back when I clean her stall, but that's due to low dose of bute or banaimine every day to keep any swelling out and draining if it needs to. On Gentamiacin, Uniprim and Penicillin, keep it wrapped and keep her in a 24x12 stall, and happy juice if she gets energetic. Vet said I got her to him before there was any scarring or changes in the sheath. At this point I don't know what else to do. The vet I used is they type to make things into the worse case scenario and he didn't reccomend surgery at the time. He said 30 days stall rest.
I've order uva ursi leaves and also give her aloe vera juice prior to feeding. She drinks 10 gallons of water a day and eats well.
I'm not a lucky person so I keep expecting to go to the barn and find she's totally lame.
Thanks for the info, everyone. Let me know if there's something else you think I should be doing.
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  Angel in a Sorrel Coat
Posts: 16030
Location: In a happy place | My stud horse injured his. I think I had the best vet ever do surgery and take care of him. He never came back sound. Absolutely through no fault of my vet or mine. |
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